Black Souls
by CTavanti
Summary: The long-awaited sequel to Desperation and Desire. A new team, a new mission and new challenges, dark habits, love interests and violent conflict threaten to tear relationships apart and turn allies against each other while deep behind enemy lines.
1. Covert Ops

Chapter 1: Covert Ops

Disclaimer: I'm not making any money off this so I don't need a disclaimer.

This is the long-overdue sequel to Desperation and Desire, and I bet you guys thought I was never going to do it.

...

Rachael pulled back on the collective, forcing the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter to climb above the rapidly-approaching mountain top. Clearing the peak by what seemed like mere inches she pushed back forward and followed the mountainside down into the valley. "Thirty seconds" she announced to her passengers.

"Copy that" Richard replied "Okay, we get in, destroy the target and get out, quick and simple, let's try to keep it quiet until the fireworks start."

"Copy" replied Toni, Mark and the new guy, Mal Duncan.

"Ryuku check in" Richard said into the radio.

"Sniper One ready" a voice replied.

"Alright... Let's make this happen!" Richard said as the chopper stopped and hovered above an alley. The doors slid open and ropes fell to the ground on each side. Richard hooked up to one while Toni hooked up to the other, two seconds later his feet hit the ground.

...

"Done with your light reading?" The President asked as he walked back into the Oval Office.

Richard paused, shaking his head, he could hardly believe what he was reading. "Mr President I... I don't even know how to put this into words."

"Oh come on, I know my strategic planning might be a bit rusty but it can't be that bad, it is just a basic outline" the President replied, almost laughing.

"You want a small team to operate covertly in Mexico, right in the epicenter of the drug wars, working to dismantle the Cartels and destroy the drug trade..."

The President stared blankly at Richard and took a long pause before flatly replying "yup."

"And you're not even going to tell Mexico about this?"

Again the President paused and stared blankly, then replied "nope."

Richard stared back at the President in disbelief, "I'm supposed to lead this thing... Who am I even working with? This doesn't list any operatives aside from a Walter West... Why does that sound familiar?"

"You get to pick your team..." The President said with a smile. "Walter will be down there with you to tap CIA resources... You don't remember meeting him? Last time you were in London?"

Richard looked straight ahead and tilted his head back, remembering "the driver..."

"Yes sir" the President said, sitting down behind his desk. "Other than him you get to pick your team, you'll need a helicopter pilot and somebody good with ground vehicles... I can give you a recommendation on that second one."

"The weapons you're equipping this team with look like something out of Star Wars... I've never even heard of this company, Desert Tech?"

"Oh yeah, they make REALLY high end stuff out in Utah, they have a huge facility out there that you and your team will actually be training at."

Richard shook his head. "So how many people do I need to find? And how long do I have to convince them to come?"

"You can recruit as many people as you want, but I would advise against taking in too many, we want to keep this quiet remember."

Richard nodded slowly, taking in all the information, he spoke after several seconds. "Okay, I have someone in mind for a helicopter pilot... And I can think of three others... I'll take that suggestion you have for a driver."

The President smiled and pulled out a pad of sticky notes, he wrote down a phone number and a name then handed it to Richard. "You call that number, introduce yourself with your title and just say you want to arrange a meeting with that guy."

Richard looked at the note "Garth Tempest?"

"Yup, Army driver, his career started off innocent and routine enough until the invasion of Tikrit, where he rose way above the challenge... I'll let him fill you in on the rest... You have until the end of the month to get your team together and here, take this..." He wrote down another phone number. "That's my personal cell number, please don't use it unless you need to, but call me when you're ready."

"Yes sir Mr. President."

...

Richard scanned the area around him, his Micro Dynamic Rifle chambered in .300 Blackout at the ready, but aside from the dust being kicked up from the chopper there was no activity. His team was right behind him and the ropes they repelled down dropped to the ground.

Rachael pulled back on the collective and turned to the left, pulling away to make her way to her holding position on the other side of a mountain. As she departed, she recalled when Richard approached her for this mission.

...

"You want me to do what?" Rachael asked in disbelief.

"I want you to join a team I'm putting together under orders from the President" Richard replied innocently.

"And what exactly is the purpose of this team?" Rachael queried.

"To eliminate a threat to the United States" Richard said, feeling awkward about not being able to reveal more.

Rachael looked away and shook her head, trying to process what she was hearing, or rather, what she was not hearing. "Rich, what threat?"

Richard sighed, "I can't say... Not unless you're in."

Rachael leaned back on her sofa, looking up at the ceiling in a comical frustration. "Oh my god... You're killing me."

"Rae... I need a helicopter pilot..." Richard said as he sat down on the sofa "You're the only one I trust..."

She looked at him with wide eyes "You trust me but you won't tell me anything... Spectacular."

He hanged his head and groaned. "Fiiiine... It's a task force to take down the drug Cartels in Mexico."

Rachael blinked multiple times and remained silent for what felt like hours. "Okay, where do I sign?"

Richard shook his head in shock "really?" He asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, sounds like something I could totally get behind, the drug trade causes so many problems for our country who wouldn't want to try to put an end to it?" She said, crossing her arms across her chest.

"Do I detect sarcasm?" Richard asked, his eyes narrow.

"No! Of course not! We've only been having a war on drugs for about a century now, this new plan should wrap it all up easy!"

Richard sighed and stood back up, picking up the folder containing the mission details. "This can end the drug trade, I believe it can... If you're really in, read up, I think it will end your skepticism."

Rachael looked at him poutingly, she stared into his dark blue eyes, nearly into his soul and after a moment could sense the confidence he had. Her attitude changed, if only slightly, and she took the folder.

...

Toni took up the left hand side of the team, scanning the windows and doors of the buildings on her side. The area seemed abandoned, with urban decay prevalent all around. "Do we have an exact location on the target?" She asked.

"Nope" Richard answered.

Toni snorted, "Then how are we going to make this quick?"

Richard stopped and scanned the area, satisfied that the team was well outside of earshot of any potential hostiles. "We're going to ask somebody... Ryuku copy."

...

"Did I not tell you I was hanging up my rifle?" Toni asked Richard sarcastically.

"This isn't military" Richard said with a smile.

"Oh, of course not, the machine guns, body armor, Blackhawk and Humvee are all just for decoration."

Richard rolled his eyes, "Toni, you know this is something that is going to make a difference."

She nodded. "Truth... Just not quite fully understanding what made you think of me for this team, I wasn't special forces, I don't have the kind of training you should be looking for."

"You'll get the training" Richard said with a smile, "I saw the way you fought, you were noticeably ahead of your peers in combat, you could get to my level easily with some determination."

Toni chuckled "your level? Holding yourself in high esteem I see."

Richard let his shoulders fall and tilting his head back as he rolled his eyes. "You're being difficult" he said, trying to suppress a laugh.

Toni chuckled again "that's nothing new Rich."

...

"Go ahead Rich" Ryuku responded.

"I thought I'd ask one of our friends where we can find the drug lab, you see anybody who might want to have a chat?"

Ryuku looked down the scope of his Stealth Recon Scout rifle, searching the area ahead of his teammates. It didn't take too long to spot a hostile somewhat separated from the rest. "There's one guy about six hundred yards ahead of you that looks a bit lonely, maybe he's up for a chat."

...

"So how many people have you got so far?" Ryuku asked.

"Including me, you're the fourth" Richard said.

Rykuk closed the folder by dropping the back cover, "something tells me you're going to need more than four."

"I have two others in mind."

"Something tells me you're going to need more than six" the Asian man suggested.

"It's a black op, it's actually beyond a black op, too many people and we can't keep things quiet."

"Well... I guess that's true... " he said, putting the folder down on his coffee table. "But still, I know a guy who would probably be interested in being a part of this that I'm going to recommend."

"So seven is your magic number?" Richard asked, smiling.

Ryuku smiled "well, it is a lucky number isn't it?"

...

Coming to the mouth of an alley, Richard was on point, he quickly put his left fist in the air to signal the team to hold position. "Status" he whispered into the radio.

"Your man doesn't seem to want to get any closer to you, you're going to have to introduce yourself, he's facing away from you" Ryuku reported.

Richard pointed at Mark, signaling him to take the man hostage. He quietly snuck out of the alley, drawing his knife on the way. He grabbed the man from behind, covering his mouth and pressing the tip of his knife into the mans neck. "You make a sound, you die" Mark said as he dragged the man into the alley.

...

"Well Mr. Grayson you were always one for the unorthodox" Mark quipped.

"Well Mr. Logan, if the shoe fits" Richard said as he handed off his luggage to the ticket agent.

"Tell me why I agreed to this again..."

"Uh... Because you're my friend and I asked you to?" Richard said sarcastically.

Mark glared at him, "riiight... That was the reason..."

The group made their way to the security checkpoint, where a long line of airline passengers waited to be screened. Toni snorted, "you would think we wouldn't be flying commercially."

"This is just to training, who knows what they're going to give us once we're ready to start our operation" Richard said.

"Probably the same damn thing" Mark quipped. "So what's this training facility like?"

Ryuku spoke, "twenty-five thousand acres in the Utah mountains, any kind of firearms, survival and military training you can imagine."

"Sounds like you've been before" Mark said. Ryuku nodded.

"I have too" Toni added. "The place is amazing, seems like the kind of place I'd want to take a self-defense class as a civ... If I ever get to be a civ again."

Richard rolled his eyes, "you just have to jab."

"Get used to it" Toni said with a smirk, causing Rachael to glare at her from behind.

"Well, I'm looking forward to expanding my horizons," Mark said, "this should be a good experience."

...

"Mal, stay here and cover our backs while we place the charges" Richard ordered as he followed his team down the stairway.

"Copy" he replied. Keeping his MDR at the ready, Mal scanned around repeatedly, keeping his ears as well as his eyes open. While the rest of the team planted explosives, he heard voices coming from right outside the kitchen door. Knowing Ryuku had no visual contact on the back of the house, he deployed the tri-rotor drone he had been equipped with and flew it over to the window. Through the drone's camera, he clearly saw two armed men walking up to the kitchen door. He immediately pointed his rifle at the door, hearing the men laughing as the one in front opened it. As soon as both men were fully in view, Mal fired a constant stream of suppressed automatic fire at them, unloading an entire magazine of .300 Blackout ammunition into them. Both men were dead before they hit the ground.

"Mal, report, everything okay up there?" Richard asked over the radio.

Mal paused, looking at the two men he just killed "I'm fine... Everything is just peachy."

...

"I have to say Mal, Ryuku was not overselling your abilities" Richard complemented.

"Thank you sir" Mal replied as he stood up from his pushup session.

"Ryuku said you started in the Army?"

"I did" Mal answered, "Did two years and felt like I could do a lot more so when I re-enlisted I signed up for Ranger training, but then Delta Force approached me before that started."

Richard nodded, "how long were you in Delta Force?"

"Technically I still was in Delta Force when Ryuku asked me to come along for this... I met him after a mission where he covered us, he took out a hostile that would have got the drop on me otherwise, I bought him a couple rounds that night and we've been close ever since."

"It's amazing how we grow together like that isn't it?"

"It is, we really are all family."

...

"Garth we're approaching the rally point" Richard announced.

"I'm waiting for you" Garth replied.

The team rounded the cliff face to find the Humvee parked in the middle of the single-lane road that served as the only way in or out of the valley for ground-based vehicles. They quickly piled in, Richard taking shotgun, "clear" he announced, "Blowing the lab now" he pressed the button on the detonator, the sound of an explosion in the distance could be heard immediately after.

"Target destroyed" Ryuku called on the radio.

Rachael took her cue and headed for the sniper's position to extract him. "I'm coming for you sniper one, be ready to bolt, ten seconds."

"Great job team" Richard said, nodding to his teammates, "let's get out of here Garth."

...

Richard and Rachael watched as Garth completed the slalom course in a top-heavy SUV, somehow managing to not tip over. "Damn... The President does know how to pick people." Richard said.

"Garth's always been a car guy, when we were in Basic he showed me a bunch of pictures of his cars and trucks."

Richard nodded. "I guess you have to get it from somewhere, I know the Army doesn't teach you to drive like that."

The driver stopped in front of them and got out. "Did I pass?" He asked.

"Well..." Richard began, "you finished about twelve seconds faster than the target time, which is a new record according to the paper I have here..."

"So you're saying I have a new time to beat?" Garth asked rhetorically, "awesome." He got back in the SUV and headed for the starting line again, leaving Richard and Rachael without words.

...

Upon arriving back at their safehouse and removing their gear, the team was approached by Walter West. "So, how did it go?" He asked.

"Mission was successful, and clean" Richard said.

"Great" Walter replied, "we're off to a good start ladies and gentlemen, now we just wait for the fallout to see what our next move is."


	2. Next Move

Chapter 2: Next Move  
...

"So show me how this works again..." Mark requested of Ryuku, referring to the SRS sniper rifle sitting on the table.

"It's really simple... This little lever right here is the trigger, you just aim at your target and pull this lever back until you hear a bang, then your target goes away."

Mark looked at the Asian man with narrowed eyes, hiding his amusement at the comment. "I mean how you convert the damn thing, smartass."

Ryuku was having a difficult time not laughing, "oh! Well why didn't you say so? Okay, first you need your torque wrench..." He picked up the T shaped tool and showed it to Mark, "and you loosen these four bolts, don't remove them, just loosen..." He unscrewed four bolts lined next to each other on the right side of the rifle, only backing them out, not removing them completely. Once all four were out, he grabbed hold of the barrel forward of the handguard and gently, but firmly pulled the barrel straight out of the receiver. "Then you pick what caliber you want and do what I just did in reverse, don't forget to change the bolt too if necessary."

"What about optics?"

"You don't need to change them, you can use the same optic for all calibers, but if you want to use a different scope you just pull the levers on the mount like so..." He pushed two levers on the scope mount nearly one-hundred eighty degrees and rolled the scope, mount and all, off the rifle. "All the mounts are return to zero, so long as you put the scope back on in the correct spot along the top rail you'll be good."

Mark nodded. "Great, so the MDR works the same way?"

Richard walked into the armory, "yes and no" he said, the two men turning to look at him. "The MDR does barrel swaps the same way, just with less screws, but if you're going from .308 to an intermediate caliber or vise versa, you need to either install or remove the magwell sleeve." He walked over to the table and picked up the aforementioned magwell sleeve, the part was rectangular and hollow. "Have to put this in to narrow down the magwell to fit either five-five-six or three-hundred black magazines."

"And everything maintains zero?" Mark asked.

Richard nodded, "yup, these rifles are amazing, really cutting edge."

...

Rachael, Richard, Toni, Mark, Ryuku, Mal and Garth walked into the room they had been directed to, seeing several firearms on the table at the front. Walter West was standing behind the table reviewing papers he had on a clipboard, he looked as if he was a high school teacher about to begin his class. The group sat down on the chairs in font of the table in a single-file side-by-side row as Walter put the clipboard down. "ladies and gentlemen..." He began, looking at the group with a smile. ""For those of you who don't know me, which means pretty much everybody other than Richard, I'm Special Agent Walter West from the CIA, it's a pleasure to meet you all..." The group responded with various mumbled greetings. "We can get to know each other in the coming days and weeks but for right now you're about to enter the final phase of training, which is weapons familiarization..." He picked up one of the rifles, "the rifles we'll be using are all made by Desert Tech, this one is their Micro Dynamic Rifle, one of the newest designs on the market and it will be your main battle rifle." He put it down and picked up another, larger rifle, "This is the Stealth Recon Scout, bolt action medium-caliber sniper rifle..." He put that one down and picked up another, even larger rifle, "This is the Hard Target Interdictor, large-bore sniper rifle... All three of these rifles are of a bullpup design which means the trigger is in front of the chamber, that significantly reduces overall length and increases maneuverability, any questions so far?"

"What ammo do these fire?" Mal asked.

Walter smiled ear to ear "I'm glad you asked... The MDR, SRS and HTI rifles are multi-caliber designs, adaptable to your mission parameters, the MDR can be converted on the fly to fire five-five-six, three-hundred blackout and three-oh-eight..."

Mark interrupted, "how can you adapt a three-oh-eight into an intermediate platform?"

Walter pointed at him "we will get to that... The SRS can be converted into three-oh-eight, three-hundred Winchester Magnum and three-three-eight Lapua Magnum, others too but those are the three that will be available to us. The HTI is available in four calibers but we will only have the fifty cal... The sniper rifles will be equipped with Nightforce A.T.A.C.R. scopes with five to twenty-five times magnification, the MDR's will have your choice of Nightforce NXS one to fours or two and a half to tens, or a Trijicon red dot... All of which can be changed on the fly."

The group looked over the weapons with a mixture of intrigue and skepticism, Rachael was seated to the far left, nearest the only pistol on table. "I take it this is our sidearm?" She asked.

"Oh right" Walter laughed, "I totally forgot... Sorry, I get wrapped up in my guns sometimes... FN Five-seven, shoots the five point seven by twenty-eight millimeter cartridge, which looks like a mini five-five six round, twenty rounds to the magazine, single-action, striker-fired."

"Why is the safety above the trigger?" Rachael asked flatly.

"Because FN said to themselves 'screw conventional, let's see how badly we can screw people up.'"

Rachael was not amused "that's going to take some training to get used to."

Walter nodded "and training you will get, we have the weapons setup out back for you to familiarize yourself with... Oh, and don't forget about the suppressors, we have suppressors for every caliber."

Mark quirked an eyebrow, "EVERY caliber? Even the fifty?"

Walter smiled, "even the fifty".

...

Toni was sitting in the surveillance room, observing the many monitors. Between the drones and perimeter cameras there was a lot of nothing to watch.

Richard walked in "anything interesting on?"

Toni turned around, then turned back to the monitors. "If only... You'd think these guys were just farmers by all the video data we have."

"Well, cocaine starts as a plant... Chop it up, dry it out, mix with diesel fuel, stir, add some lime, stir some more..." Toni cut him off.

"Throw in some caustic soda, pyrolusite... God I wonder how many users actually know how toxic that shit is..."

"Probably not many and the ones that do don't care" Richard said as he sat down.

Toni nodded. "I'm equally surprised that coca plants are being grown in Mexico, it's a little too far north, at least as far as my education is concerned."

"Where there's a will there's a way" Richard said.

"I guess..." She turned to look at her leader. "Was there... Something you needed?"

Richard looked back at her, pausing before speaking. "No... I just... Wanted to check up and see if you found anything."

Toni nodded and turned back to the screens. "Well, if I do you'll be the first to know about it." Richard took a long pause before getting up and walking to the door, Toni turned just as he was stepping out. "Rich?" He stopped and looked back at her, staying halfway out the door. "Do you think we're going to be able to stop these cartels? I mean... There's thousands of members and many more sitting in the wings waiting for a chance to join... I don't think this is a war we can win, not with a clandestine approach like this at least..."

Richard walked back into the room, approaching Toni as she turned her chair to fully face him. He squatted down, keeping his eyes on the floor. "We have to..." He said after a short while. "... Maybe we took a bigger bite than we thought but we have to... Even if it weren't for the drugs these animals torture people to death just for the fun of it, you've seen the pictures."

"I have."

"Then you know we have to." He stood up. "Now, on a lighter note, our resident weapons expert Mark apparently isn't as much of an expert as we've been lead to believe."

"I wasn't aware Mark was an expert in anything..." Toni said with a smile.

"Oh he is, just ask him" Richard replied, causing the two to laugh.

Rachael walked by the surveillance room, catching Richard and Toni interacting out of the corner of her eye, she stopped and saw the two laughing with each other. She narrowed her eyes, jealousy sending a shiver down her spine. She continued down the hall, giving herself a firm palm hit to the head "stop it" she mumbled to herself.

...

"Is there ever a time when you're not tinkering?" Mal asked Garth.

"Sure there is, when I'm driving" Garth replied, shoulder-deep in the engine compartment of the Humvee.

Mal rolled his eyes, "that doesn't count" he said as he took a sip of his drink.

Garth looked up at him briefly before returning his attention to the engine of the Humvee. "Why doesn't it count?"

"I meant doing something non car related."

"Oh..." Garth replied, "well you should have just said that... Well, I do sleep sometimes."

Mal face palmed. "So, what exactly are you trying to do to the truck?"

"Trying to..." He strained, as if he was trying to pull something that wouldn't give, "pull a few more horses out of this thing."

"You do know this isn't yours right?" Mal asked as he leaned his left side against the Humvee, crossing his arms. "It's military issue... You get caught messing with it..." Garth cut him off.

"Black op... We're not bound by the normal rules of engagement down here Mal, we have a lot more freedom."

Mal shook his head "I guess" he said as he turned and walked away, passing Rachael, who was walking in.

"You getting along with everybody?" She asked of Garth.

"Eh, hard to tell at this point."

Rachael made a playful frustrated face. "Hmm... Well, it's not like we've been working with these people for years like we have with some others..."

"Nope" Garth said as he closed the hood. "Really wish I had my buddies garage to work in, I have no way to tell if my work did what I wanted it to..."

"Well, I'm sure you're going to get a chance to drive again soon, you'll be able to tell then."

...

"Alright team, observation isn't working so we're going to poke the nest and see what happens" Richard said to the room full of his teammates. "This farm is one of the larger ones producing coca plants, we're going to destroy it... We have some data indicating how many hostiles we'll be dealing with but nothing beats taking a look in person... We clear the perimeter, then pick off as many bad guys as we can before they become aware of what's going on. If we're lucky we'll get them all without raising an alarm.

"And if we're not lucky?" Toni asked.

"Then check your fire once it gets loud, we have a lot of innocents working the fields, a lot of them children."

"Sick bastards" Mark said, shaking his head.

"Nothing is off limits to these drug lords, child labor is just another day in the office" Richard added. "We hit tonight, Rachael, you're going to drop us here" he pointed to a spot on the map. "That's a click and a half east of our target, you'll hold there because that's also our primary extraction point. Once we're in, Mark, you're going to setup here." He pointed at another part of the map. "that should give you a great view of the target... Ryuku, you will setup here." Richard pointed to a spot north of Mark's assigned spot. That should give you an equally great view. Your targets will be between four hundred and nine hundred or so yards so equip accordingly.

"Copy that" Ryuku said.

"As for the rest of us, we enter right through the middle, get the civvies out of the way and torch the fields."

"With what?" Garth queried.

"That's actually where you come in, once we have the area secured you'll pull in a tanker full of gasoline, we douse everything and light it... Wally will meet up with you one click due north of the LZ." Everybody in the room seemed to get it. "Alright then, we're wheels up in three hours."


End file.
